No Surrender
by Alex Skywalker
Summary: "Now young faces grow sad and old, and hearts of fire grow cold. We swore blood brothers against the wind and now I'm ready to grow young again." The war continues to take its toll and Anakin and the 501st struggle to hold onto the promise they made to each other. Clone Wars era.


**May the Fourth be with you! (Yeah, I'm late, whatever).**

 **Am I the only who is really feeling the lack of Anakin and Rex stories? Like, what is up? My bromance otp right there. Anyway, this is based off the song No Surrender by Bruce Springsteen as well as the Glee version (but it's forever the Boss's song). Go listen to the song, it really works with this story. Also, sorry if my SW terminology sucks. I try.  
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They were under heavy fire. The wind was harsh and biting, blasting through even the reinforced clone armor and the Jedi's Tung-Tung-fur-lined parkas. Already they were down half of the original number of troops and two Jedi were out of commission – one dead and the other gravely injured. The mountain rose ominously above the remaining platoon and their Jedi leader, despite them already having scaled half of the beast. The higher they climbed, the harder the winds blew and the ice cut through the air. By now, the snow and ice were swirly so thickly it was impossible to see much farther than two feet ahead. Somehow the droids shooting at them didn't seem affected by this.

"General."

Anakin paused briefly to allow his captain to catch up, leaning into the mountainside to keep his footing and holding his lightsaber defensively in front of his body.

The wind carried Rex's voice away and down the mountain as he shouted. "The men are tiring quickly. Dodging constant blaster shots is hard on any day, not to mention cannon blasts; throw in a bloody endless mountain, wounded to drag around…." Rex trailed off, jamming himself firmly into the snowy ground alongside Anakin, his blaster gripped firmly in his hand.

Anakin subconsciously blocked a shot with his lightsaber, turning his head to the right as a large outcropping of rock was blasted to pieces off to the left. He knew Rex spoke for himself as much as for his troops and Anakin felt every word the clone said. They'd been scaling the mountain for hours now – Anakin had lost count at this point – and with each passing minute wounded clones and Jedi were added to the burden the remaining troops had to carry.

Staring into Rex's helmet, Anakin could practically feel his own thoughts reflected by his captain. Even if they somehow managed to make it up the mountain, they still had to have enough energy and men to storm the Separatist base and take down whatever machines the rebels had guarding the place. But even beyond all that, Anakin felt his exhaustion mirrored in stance of the man across from him. Exhaustion that ran deeper than merely the mission. Exhaustion running as deep as the war itself, culminated throughout all of the battles and missions and training and fear and death.

The war was hard and the war was long. It cut into your very being, slowly tearing you apart from the inside until you were either destroyed by the pain or became numb to it. It felt endless, like there had always been war. Sometimes, when Anakin lay in bed at night, unable to close his eyes because of the images that lay behind his eyelids, he tried to remember the time of peace before the war. Sometimes he could bring up recollections of his days spent training with Obi Wan as they explored the galaxy together, or the nights he would dream of Padme and wonder if he would ever see her again. Sometimes, he would even dredge up memories of his life on Tattooine with his mother. As the war dragged on, and Anakin found it harder and harder to fall asleep at night, the memories of peace more and more evaded his grasp until some nights, he wondered if they were even memories at all, or merely fantasies.

"General?"

Anakin took a shallow breath, the harsh cold stinging his throat and lungs. For Rex, it was worse. His whole life had been spent in preparation for and then in participation of war. The clone had never known peace.

"I know, Rex," Anakin whispered. He let himself fall against the near vertical side of the mountain, staring across the distance between him and a man he'd come to regard as nearly a brother.

Rex reached out a gloved hand and rested it on his general's shoulder. "I trust you with my life and, more importantly, with my brothers' lives."

Anakin could only nod. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to turn back and not lead his troops to their certain deaths. The mission was suicide and suddenly all Anakin could think was that he was glad Ahsoka was back at the Temple, safe. The thought almost shocked him, like such thoughts had before – somehow, over the course of the past two years, he'd found himself responsible for lives other than his own. At some point, he'd grown from the little sandy-haired boy, too old to begin Jedi training, but too powerful to turn away, into a General in the Republic army. He had an entire legion under his command and a Padawan of his own, looking to him for directions on how to become the Jedi he'd never become.

When had he grown up? He was barely twenty-one and yet he felt _old_. _"War turns boys into men and civilians into soldiers."_ Obi-Wan's voice echoed in Anakin's head and he could see his old master smile ruefully as he sighed and admitted maybe they all had grown up too fast. Leaning against the bitter snow, the wind like a whip across his body, Anakin felt ready to grow young again. He couldn't do this. He couldn't call the shots on someone else's life, no matter if they entrusted such things with him. He couldn't do it, but he had to.

Taking another shallow breath that he wished was deeper, Anakin looked up into Rex's face and pushed himself up again, straightening his sore and weary body, ignoring the twinge of pain from the blaster wound on his side. Rex's body straightened as well and he hefted his blaster higher.

"Call for a regroup," Anakin ordered. "We'll reform and then get ready to nail those tinnies. You know the orders, Rex."

"Always, Sir. No surrender."

oOo

The sun was setting on Coruscant, its final glow illuminating the city below. Letting the door hiss shut behind him, Anakin collapsed on his bed, dropping his head into his hands and trying stop his body from shaking. The Separatist base was destroyed, by some crazy miracle, but the cost had been high. Nearly every clone that had accompanied Anakin to the mountain was either dead or wounded – more dead than wounded. The helmets adorning the 501st's remembrance garden had multiplied. Only one of the Jedi other than Anakin had survived and he was currently in critical condition. During the final push to take the base, both Anakin and Rex had been shot, Rex in his blaster hand and Anakin in his shoulder. In the end, only Anakin, Rex, and Caller had made it into the base and set the charges that finally took out the hellhole for good. Caller had been injured in the resulting blast, but he was okay.

The trip back to Coruscant had been a blur. Anakin had commandeered a Separatist ship and flown the remaining troops back home, but he hardly remembered any of it. Even now, Anakin had to double check that he'd changed out of his soggy, frozen, bloody clothes. He found his glove was still damp and tossed it away in disgust, the fingers of his left hand brushing against the icy metal of his right. He didn't think he'd ever get over the cold. It had been bone-chilling; even now, wearing three layers of Jedi robes with the thermostat in his room cranked as high as it would go, Anakin found himself shivering.

Suddenly the walls of his room seemed to be closing in on him as memories rushed back. Clones' bodies' torn open by grenades and cannons, their frozen insides strewn across the side of the frozen mountain. Rex going down as a stray shot hit him from the side. Master Sayonara's unconscious form slowly turning white and then blue as he threatened to freeze to death, supported between two clones. The bare bodies of the droids, innumerable, some still showing circuits, thrust out early as they were to aid in the defense of the base. Wave upon wave of Destroyers, Mega's, and even Assassin Droids, their shots the only color in the barren, white landscape.

And then Anakin couldn't take it anymore – the white-washed walls and pile of sodden clothes that he'd figured maybe he could salvage (not anymore) – and so he ran. The Jedi Temple was vast and Anakin had no idea how long he ran for. He saw very few lifeforms, late as it was, and those he saw he barely registered. He ran until he was no longer cold but almost warm and panting. Slowing to a stop, he looked around for the first time, mildly curious as to where he'd ended up. He was surprised to see he was in his hanger at the loading docks. What remained of his fleet were parked against the far wall and the hanger was empty and dark and silent. Anakin almost turned around, not wanting to be near such articles of war, when he saw the Twilight was parked at the edge of the hanger and the hanger door was open, looking out onto the city and the computer-generated night sky.

Cautiously, Anakin made his way over to the back of the ship, the chilly night air hitting him and causing him stop and shiver violently.

"Master?"

Ahsoka sat up from where she lay on the open ramp of the ship, looking at Anakin questioningly.

"Hey, Snips." Anakin winced at the hoarseness of his voice as he closed the distance between himself and his Padawan and sat down beside her. "What're you doing?"

"Just… sitting," she replied, giving him a sidelong, questioning glance.

Anakin looked down at her, drawing his knees up to his chest and crossing his arms on top of them. He figured he probably looked ridiculous like this, like a kid and not like a Jedi General, but it was only Ahsoka and he could threaten her with ship washing if she made any comments.

"I heard the mission was bad," she finally said, dropping onto her elbows.

"Did you talk to Rex?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, we lost a lot of men."

Ahsoka lay a hand on Anakin's shoulder. They were silent for another minute before Ahsoka spoke again.

"Do you think the war will ever end?"

"Everything comes to an end, Ahsoka."

"I know, but… do you think we'll win?"

"No one ever wins in war, Young One," Rex's voice carried from the shadows. The clone captain stepped forward and leaned against the side of the Twilight, helmetless, his arms crossed loosely over his chest.

Ahsoka scowled. "It so… pointless."

Anakin smiled a bit, tugging on one of Ahsoka's headtails in the way he knew she hated. She shrugged him off, glaring, and he only smiled more.

"Have I ever told you I'm glad to have you by my side?"

"Have I ever told you sometimes I wish I wasn't?" But she was smiling now too.

"Well I have to be by both of your sides," Rex cut in. "All the fighting and the sassing and the yelling."

"Admit, Rexy," Ahsoka laughed. "You wouldn't have it any other way."

Rex scoffed, but Anakin guessed it was to cover up his smile. "'Course I wouldn't."

" _General Skywalker, your present is requested in the Command Center."_

Anakin winced at the grating voice in his ear. He should've taken out his com link.

"What is it?" Ahsoka asked.

"We're needed in Command." Anakin stood up, his body screaming as he stretched his sore muscles.

"Don't they ever give you a break?" The girl asked, standing as well and looking at Anakin worriedly, her defensive posture showing how upset she was.

"You know the orders, Snips. No Surrender."

 **Alex out.**


End file.
